Thursday, January 12, 2012

Last weekend, Jason and I were lucky enough to be free of any real responsibilities or engagements so we decided to hop in the car and head up north. Literally. I called Jason at work on Thursday afternoon:

"do we have plans at all this weekend?"

"not that I know of""

"want to get out of town for a couple days?"

"where to?"

Wow... that was easy! Later that night we checked out Pure Michigan and decided Traverse City was the place for us. One of the best things about Michigan is you can easily escape the hustle and bustle of everyday living by simple driving a couple hours from home. From where we live, Traverse City is actually about 3.5 hours but, totally worth the extra mileage. Jason and I both had to work on Friday, so we were definitely crunched for time but I was able to make a reservation at the Park Place Hotel in downtown Traverse City. I would absolutely recommend this hotel to anyone planning to visit TC. The staff was more than accomodating, especially with our last minute request. The location was the perfect walking distance to the downtown restaurants and bars, even in cold temperatures and they had some great recommendations for things to do and see.

Typically Traverse City is blanketed with snow this time of year creating a beautiful Winter Wonderland with plenty of snow sports and outdoor activities to do. However, Michigan is having an unusually mild Winter so far so we weren't able to take part in any snowy sports. Instead, we booked a wine tour and visited 6 wineries on Old Mission Peninsula! I would say that's a pretty good trade off! We had such a great time touring the wineries, especially because we booked a driver through By the Bay Tours. It was great not to have to worry about finding the wineries on our own, or even driving ourselves after a few tastings!

I am a 24 year old Michigan girl through and through. I am one of those twisted people that love extreme weather, but will probably complain about it after a few days like most of us. Camping every Summer is a must and walking the Mackinac Bridge is a new tradition I adopted when I met my fiance. I have an awesome family and group of friends and anyone that knows me knows I love animals, candy and traveling. I work for a medical device company and love my job. I recently got engaged to the love of my life, Jason, and we started planning our Fall wedding.

One of the reasons for my new blog is to remind myself to LET IT BE. I used to think of myself as an easy going/go-with-the-flow type of girl, but as I'm getting older I'm realizing I'm often stressed and anxious. My goal is to get back to being that relaxed, young-at-heart girl and realizing that it's...wait for it....